Chapter 2 – Blood and Escape
"What do you want?" he said.
"That's no way to treat your host"
"I didn't plan to make visits today" he said, affronting the man.
The man stood and put the gun away, there were two more in the other room if necessary. He took a handkerchief from his pocket, anticipating that he would need to clean his hands.
"Listen, kid. Short series, I want that gold that was part of the ship!"
"Wow, if only I had written the article. I could have avoided this" thought Tintin. "He's not with me, he's not even in Belgium. He was sent to Tetaragua", he replied, only to be punched in the stomach. The bandit certainly didn't know that Haddock had sent, in a nice gesture, all the stolen gold back to his country of origin.
"I can't kill you. But I can hurt you, where did you and that captain hide the gold?"
What could I say to avoid another punch? Snowy wasn't there to chew his strings. Snowy!? Where... was the little white dog? He had to get out of there first.
"I told you, it's at South Ame..."
The sentence wasn't even completed, the young man had been beaten again and there were two strong punches to the child's face, this time he fell from the chair and felt that his attacker's ring had cut his lip. It wasn't the first time Tintin was kidnapped, it wasn't the first time he was tied up and it wasn't the first time he was punched, but it seemed like the first time he couldn't fight back. He remained lying on the wooden floor, while he felt the door lock behind him, he was so tired and weak that he didn't move. Having caught him at the end of his run was a great strategy, the lack of energy would already be an ally of his kidnappers. He tried to take a deep breath and with difficulty sat up, he realized that the room was lit by the moon through some large holes in the ceiling and the broken window, incompetently covered by boards. Tintin looked around the place and found barrels, candlesticks and pieces of tile, he managed to pick up a very sharp one and in three minutes he was free from his bonds. He had a plan when he looked out the window again and saw that there was a lake at the back of the house!
He found a strong industrial elastic band and, together with one of the candlesticks, he improvised a slingshot.
"Very well, now just shoot..."
Immediately one of those pieces of tile went through the window and made noise in the lake. The reporter quickly hid in the darkness of a table in the corner of the room. Turning the rusty doorknob, the kidnapper and his two henchmen entered the place and without thinking twice they discovered an escape. They left the door wide open and the way clear for a cunning young man to crawl back home, however not before finding a sufficiently tell-tale note, indicating something in the vicinity of the old Caffee Le Procope .
Outside, he noticed that he was in a small house on one of the forks in the road that led to the castle. She was still sore and didn't want to attract attention, she walked as quickly as possible and as quietly as possible, she couldn't even scream for Snowy. Ah, you poor little dog, where would you be?
When he arrived 45 minutes away from Marlinspike Hall, he heard groans clearly coming from a dog. "Snowy?" The happy, yet worrying sound of his friend tied to a pine tree took away all attention from human footsteps in the grass.
"Snowy! Are you okay?" the boy asked as he untied the rope from someone who had saved him many times from the same quote. Fortunately, the animal had no injuries and didn't even look tired, the dog immediately licked his master's face to show his sincere contentment.
The sounds of footsteps had become less cautious and faster, as quick as a hand to stab whoever had fled.
Tintin turned around just in time to restrain the henchman's hand. Luckily , the criminal was alone and wasn't very smart enough to shout to the others that he had found the reporter. The henchman took a step back and pulled his arm, in one more attempt, he managed to make a cut on her pink cheek that reached her white blouse.
Snowy assessed the situation, wanted to know whether he should attack the left leg or the right. He bit the one closest to him, as if it were a large bone.
" Aaaaah " he screamed, screamed and lost his balance, giving space for Tintin to punch him in the jaw. The bandit fell to the ground seeing stars, the boy also fell when he noticed that he was losing blood, the hand that held his neck was getting wet, the cut didn't go directly between his cheek and shoulder after all. He was fighting so hard to stay conscious that he only had time to whisper a few weak words to Snowy before passing out.